Chinese hospital treats kid with rare blood type

A hospital in north China's Tianjin said on Thursday it has conducted an operation on a girl with a rare blood type.

The eight-year-old Yu Wenhao was found to have congenital heart disease when she was two. But as her family could not afford an operation, she could only be treated this year in a public benefit program at Teda International Cardiovascular Hospital.

The girl, with a blood type P, has rare antibodies in her blood. Only nine people in China have such a blood type.

To perform the operation work, doctors searched for the blood across the country and found a match in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

On the day of the operation, a bag of P-type blood was transported in a bullet train from Jiangsu to Tianjin, a distance of 1,000 kilometers, the hospital said.

As the blood is very rare, doctors tried to minimize blood loss in the operation, the hospital said.

The girl is now in a stable condition.